So the World Cup pool results are in and the winner is Paul Thompson. Congrats Paul! You win nothing. This is the first time in two World Cups I’ve not won the pool, so you’ve got that going for you.
Top five finishers are:
1. Paul Thompson – 88 pts
2. Will Ching – 82 pts
3. Trent Hergenrader – 81 pts
4. Matt Garner & Jed von Heimburg- 73 pts
However, I have to say I felt ESPN’s pool weighed the latter stages too heavily and spread the top of the table unevenly. If you just go by sheer number of games guessed correctly, the results look like this:
1. Matt Garner, Trent Hergenrader, Troy Hergenrader – 43 games
4. Will Ching, Paul Thompson – 42 games
6. Grace Dugan, Ellen Stenard – 40 games
8. Jed von Heimburg – 37 games
Out of 64 games, that’s not too shabby—68%, 66%, 63%, and 58% correct respectively, including draws for those first round games. Folks know their footie. Or guessed well.
Rules are rules though, so all hail PT!
4 Comments
I also feel like the latter games were weighed too heavily, and I relied on picking the favorites most of the time. It’s not fair at all when games are decided on kicks, and you’ve got refs Larrionda and Elizonda working the last matches, it’s like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates.
Other thoughts:
Why even have a third place game? I hate it, especially in hockey’s WCHA Final Five tournament. Unless there’s a REAL medal (Olympics), you shouldn’t play for third, and even then, I could make a case that there should be no Bronze in head to head/match play sports.
I’d prefer a NCAA March Madness type contest (pick further ahead of time), but the seeding of teams in the first round would probably relegate everyone to low scores and frustration.
I’m working as a consultant, mostly from home, so I had a way unfair advantage. And a Spain v. Argentina final would probably have been worth watching again and again.
The third place game is annoying as it only serves to round-out the tournament. In 1990 and 2006 it allowed the hosts—Italy and Germany, respectively—to win something, and it 2002 it gave hosts Korea a chance. 1998 gave Davor Suker the chance to win the golden boot. In 1994 it meant nothing, but a young(er) Trent Hergenrader and his pop saw Sweden thrash a half-asleep Bulgaria 4-0.
The brackets for the World Cup aren’t as neat as they are for basketball. Pre-Internet age, pools were based more or less on your first round picks. If you didn’t get the right teams emerging you were totally screwed but it takes a bit more knowledge to forecast games. I did one abouth two months before the tournament and had zero of the semifinalists and four quarterfinalists.
I will happily wallow in my middling position of tied for 16th. I was doing a poor job of selecting FOR teams, so I started selected AGAINST them. Worked fine up until the last two games. But thankfully that means that Germany and Italy won their games, so there’s something there. (grin)
Besides The Trent, the 2004 Clarionites didn’t do so bad — Grace Dugan did quite well, and with a tie for 16th by the ever popular Dr. Phil (snort), none of finished in the lower division.
Meet again in four years?
Dr. Phil
Alas, a great number of the bottom half of the table neglected to do their picks for the second round so they’re happily propping up the upper-half. You did quite well after the group stage, though. This wasn’t a big World Cup for upsets so it definitely favored those of us “in the know.”